“Listening to the lyrics you learned so much about our country and heritage. “Ingrained in the lyrics of every Tragically Hip song was meaning, poetry for certain,” she said. Downie, 53, died of brain cancer on Tuesday night and the sad news has elicited. Culture Minister Lisa MacLeod said the poet laureate will raise the profile of poetry in Ontario and naming it after Downie is a fitting tribute to his legacy as an artist. The passing of Gord Downie is touching the hearts of celebrities in Canada and people all around the world. Members of the legislature from across the political spectrum paid tribute to Downie, with many reading Tragically Hip lyrics that had moved them and praising his contribution to the arts. It gets people talking about arts and culture.” But if a poet laureate comes to town that’s big news. “This is so important to small town Ontario, rural Ontario,” he said. Hatfield says the bill was a non-partisan attempt to promote poetry and literacy across the province. Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Percy Hatfield is shown in this 2018 file photo. The initiative aimed to raise awareness about Canada’s history of residential schools through music, dance and art. Why a dying Gord Downie struggled to reveal 'The Secret Path' to Canadians In his last year, while living with his own tragic story of terminal cancer, singer Gord Downie was consumed by another. He also helped create the multi-platform Secret Path project, which tells the story of Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old Ojibwe boy who died while trying to escape an Ontario residential school in 1966. While Downie is best known for his time with the Tragically Hip, he published a book of poetry in 2001 called Coke Machine Glow. “It was really touching to hear such a heartfelt outpouring of love and appreciation for Gord, the man, and his artistic contribution,” his brother Patrick said. Gord Downie: 1964 - 2017 Gord Downie and Neil Young performed together at the 2005 Live8 Concert in Canada. Members of Downie’s family attended debate at the provincial legislature to watch the bill pass into law. And no one looked better in denim than Gord.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. No one straddled the line of celebrity and down-to-earth everyman more than Gord. No one loved Canada, with all its good and the bad, more than Gord. Gord has dedicated his legacy to creating lasting, positive change in Canada we are committed to making Gord proud as he begins to walk down this new path in his journey. His legacy, messages of hope, and powerful calls to action live on. Here in Victoria “rain falls in real time and rain fell through the night.” It couldn’t help but feel like the tears of an entire country in mourning. In October of 2017, Gord Downie passed away with his children and family close by. The Tragically Hip was your grandpa’s band, your buddy’s band and your band. The four bedroom and seven bathroom abode is currently listed for 5.988 million. It spans a generous 6,349 square feet of living space across four levels. Whether you’re reading this in print or online, it just goes to show the way the band blurred the lines of generations. Gord Downie, the late frontman for The Tragically Hip, once called this brick-clad listing in Rosedale his home. Since the band first took the stage in 1984, they continued to throw the best parties in some of Canada’s biggest and smallest towns. That’s the thing about the demise of a brilliant mind, it’s never really so because we get to carry pieces of it forever. Downie’s lyrics have been everywhere since, like a giant electronic game of telephone where we all got to say, this was the part when he moved me. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau teared up as he told Canadians, “we are less as a country” and everyone from the NHL to Ed the Sock to your aunt posted on social media. He was a rare bird who had a unique approach to words, songwriting, dancing, to being Canadian and to making Canada better. It’s rare that you get the opportunity to bid farewell to anyone before their passing, let alone someone you’ve likely never met (but felt you’d known your whole life). If you were fortunate enough to be there, you might remember it as the moment you started to brace yourself for the inevitable, as you stood under the same roof as those five boys from Kingston, Ont. The Hip hit the road, playing every major Canadian city – they began with two shows in Victoria – because Downie said he “wanted to say good-bye face to face to face.” It was only two years ago that the Tragically Hip frontman and lyricist announced he had glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer that promptly put Downie and the band’s life into perspective. Gord Downie, the lead singer for Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the group announced on their website on Tuesday. Wednesday was sombre across the nation as we learned that Gordon Edgar Downie had passed away at 53 after a hard-fought battle with brain cancer.